Cabbie Is Good Samaritan

Saves Man From 3 Muggers

February 20, 1985|By Neil Santaniello, Staff Writer

RIVIERA BEACH — William Hutcheson thought it was the end.

Stabbed in the chest, robbed and pelted with rocks by three muggers early Tuesday, the truck driver staggered into the middle of Old Dixie Highway with his assailants hot on his heels. He was begging motorists to stop and help him.

``No one stopped,`` he recalled in a hoarse whisper from his bed in St. Mary`s Hospital in West Palm Beach, where he is recuperating from a punctured lung and a stab wound below his heart. ``No one even tried to stop. They were almost running over me to get by.``

But cab driver Jimmy Bell did stop. And Hutcheson, 45, of Tampa, who was listed in fair condition, said he`s convinced his attackers would have killed him if it weren`t for Bell. One of the suspects was arrested later.

The Bluefront Jitney Service driver had delivered his last fare and was on his way home when he drove past the 12:12 a.m mugging in the 3500 block of Avenue K.

``I was going north on Old Dixie,`` Bell said, ``and when I looked to my right and saw these three young men throwing rocks at this guy, I got out and said, `What are you all doing to that man?` ``

The distraction allowed Hutcheson to reach the cab and, amid a hail of rocks, climb into the back seat.

Bell took Hutcheson to the city`s main fire station, a mile away at 600 W. Blue Herron Blvd., police said.

Bell, 50, who has driven a cab for 26 years, recalled, ``He said, `Mister, would you please help me. I tried to stop everybody but no one would stop but you.` ``

Police arrested one of the three alleged muggers when the trio returned to Hutcheson`s tractor-trailer, parked in front of a plumbing supply company where the attack occurred, said Lt. Jerry Poreba.

``They were ransacking it,`` he said.

Marvin Smith, 23, of Riviera Beach was caught after a foot pursuit by an officer and his K-9 dog, Poreba said.